Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi has been great. Jenn and Spencer are fabulous hosts and have welcomed me into their home even while they are celebrating their first anniversary. They live in a very neat building complex, Etihad Towers which consists of five towers and a hotel. It is interesting to just people watch the valet parking outside the hotel as the sheiks pull up in their Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porches, SUV’s you name it. Wealth is the word to describe Abu Dhabi. Jenn and Spencer’s apt has a great view looking out onto Emirates Palace, it is the hotel that was used in the Sex and the City Movie. They also look at the President’s new Palace that is currently under construction and they have a great view of the water. They are in the downtown core.  Their place has a pool so it has been nice to chill out and read a book by the pool.

I went on a Big Bus Tour the other day to see the sights. Man was it hot. The bus was a double decker open top and it was mid day so she was warm. It is over 40 degrees here day and night.

I saw the Grand Mosque which is magnificent.

Some facts on the Emirates Palace Hotel; it costs $17 000 a night for the suite and a cheap room is $1200. It cost 13 billion dollars to build and I tried to book a tour to see one of those $17 000 suite rooms but they were full so you couldn’t see one of the rooms. I asked how many there are and they said 16. I said well that is great that they are booked.

Everywhere has an abundance of staff. At the valet parking place or the place where if you’re like me you catch a cab they must have 15 people waiting to get you a cab or park your car. Everyone says good day mama constantly.

If you are an expat you tend to hang out at hotels as they are the only places besides your home where alcohol is served. Restaurants do not have liquor licenses. Even buying alcohol is an adventure. You are supposed to have a license to buy it. I went to find the store and buy Jenn and Spencer a couple of bottles of wine for their anniversary. The store was to be beside a grocery store. I couldn’t see it so while I was in the grocery store I went up to a Westerner and asked is there a place close by to buy alcohol. Oh, yes just go out these doors and to your right you will see an awning there is the store. So out I go around the corner and it is night time and dark out, let me paint the scene for you. I arrive at these big solid doors with blacked out windows and enter what one might think of the way strip clubs look back home, but enter the fully stocked liquor store. No problems and I was on my way.

We had a nice dinner party with Amanda and some of her friends the other night and then Amanda and Christina took me to the Crown Plaza the other night for drinks on the roof top patio. Amanda is another Ontario person who spent 8 years living in Peterborough. I also met up with Shawn and his son today. We did brunch together. Shawn is also from Peterborough and he and his wife just moved here to teach for the year.

The architecture is something around here. Architects must love designing buildings in Abu Dhabi where money is no object. Speaking of money, the government makes $ 250 million a day on crude oil. Emirates are looked after. They do not have to work and will receive $ 40 000 US a year from the government if they choose to just live off the system. When they marry the government gives them a house or a piece of land. Their education and health care are paid for. If you are a working emirate chances are you are very rich. Emirates own all of these hotels and buildings and don’t seem to care what the expense is on them. Last year if you were a government employee (which get paid very well) and because it was the cities 40 anniversary they gave them a year’s salary as a bonus and a 35% raise.

Construction is huge here and on a 7/24 rotation. You should see the shift change as busses pull away full of immigrant Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistani workers and take them back to the commune. These people in comparison work in this crazy heat, 12 hour shifts and make $2500 a year; yes I didn’t forget a zero, $2500.

I went on a desert safari and went dune bashing. It was thrilling to climb all over the sand dunes in a Toyota and slide sideways down the dunes and have the sand “splash” up over the vehicle like water at home when you go through a big puddle. Speaking of comparisons to home, do you know that the pools here have chillers to cool them off unlike us with our heaters they need to cool the water down?

Back to the desert safari, it was a 6 hour experience where we drove through the sand dunes, dune bashing. I then had a sunset camel ride, I went sand boarding down the dune. They had Burton “snow” boards that I hiked up the sand dune with and then boarded down the dune, which was pretty fun. I got a henna tattoo on my hand, had a great barbeque dinner, and watched some belly dancers. Which always floors me as the women are so covered here and yet they can belly dance? Then at this camp in the desert they turn off all the lights and you get to watch the stars. The moon was really bright and continued to light up the desert.     

Click on this link for photos from Abu Dhabi

You may have to cut and paste this address as the link seems to be acting up

https://plus.google.com/photos/113397051291621287474/albums/5793151412022003169

There seems to be a bit of a glitch when looking at the photos in the slide show mode. I think for now if you click on the first photo and in the bottom right hand corner there is an side ways arrow, click on it, it should put it into full screen mode and the captions should appear if you drag your mouse over them and use the arrow on the side to advance to the next picture. I put the captions there, so it would be nice if you could see them and know what you are looking at.